Thomas Cup

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The Thomas Cup is the major men's international team competition in world badminton, also known as "The International Badminton Championship Challenge Cup". It is named after Sir George Alan Thomas, a former IBF President who donated the Cup in 1939. The first Thomas Cup competition took place at Preston, England in 1948-1949.

The Thomas Cup is a knock-out competition, the first 12 editions were played once every three years with 9 matches in a tie and played in two days. In 1984 the format changed to five matches (3 singles and 2 doubles) played in a day, united with the Uber Cup (the female tournament) playing in a same venue. From 1992 the IBF decided to change the match order (to: singles; doubles; singles; doubles; singles) due to the superiority of men singles.

From 2000 the knockout phase of the matches was terminated once the winner of the tie was decided, after the IBF received criticism about the time wasting of playing the remaining matches. However the group phase will keep the traditional progression of full five matches.

For the first time since 1984, the Thomas and Uber Cup will held in different time begin 2010.^[1]

1 Trophy
2 Format
- 2.1 Qualification
- 2.2 Final tournament
3 Past Winners
4 Successful national teams
5 References and footnotes

[edit] Trophy

Thomas Cup, so far only three countries able lifted up

Manufactured in London, the trophy is silverplated, 28 inches high and 16 inches wide, handles included. The trophy is in three parts: a plinth, a bowl and a lid. On top of the lid is a figure of a player. On the back of the bowl and on the plinth the winning names are printed.

[edit] Format

Thomas Cup has two stages to be played: qualification and finals. Both are played in a venue decided by IBF.

[edit] Qualification

The qualification is the pre-tournament before the final. The format is set based on the region, qualification, and teams participating. After the tournament grew from 8 to 12 teams in the finals, Asia were awarded 4 places, 3 places for Europe and one each to Oceania, Americas and Africa. The remaining two places were given automatically to the defending champion and host country.

[edit] Final tournament

The finals of the tournament combine the format of round robin and a knockout stage. 12 teams are divided into 4 groups with 2 round robin tournament matches played for every team. The group winner goes into the quarter finals. The group runners-up and second runners-up will seal their fate in the play-offs, playing with another group runners-up teams and second runners-up teams before reaching the quarter finals. After the quarter finals follows the semi finals and final.

[edit] Past Winners

Year	Host	Final			Third Place ^[2]
Year	Host	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Third Place	Score	Fourth Place
1949 details	Preston, England	Malaya ^[3]	8–1	Denmark
1952 details	Singapore	Malaya	7–2	United States
1955 details	Singapore	Malaya	8–1	Denmark
1958 details	Singapore	Indonesia	6–3	Malaya
1961 details	Jakarta, Indonesia	Indonesia	6–3	Thailand
1964 details	Tokyo, Japan	Indonesia	5–4	Denmark
1967	Jakarta, Indonesia	Malaysia	6–3	Indonesia
1970	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Indonesia	7–2	Malaysia
1973	Jakarta, Indonesia	Indonesia	8–1	Denmark
1976	Bangkok, Thailand	Indonesia	9–0	Malaysia
1979	Jakarta, Indonesia	Indonesia	9–0	Denmark
1982	London, England	China	5–4	Indonesia
1984	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Indonesia	3–2	China	England	3–2	Korea
1986	Jakarta, Indonesia	China	3–2	Indonesia	Malaysia	3–2	Denmark
1988	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	China	4–1	Malaysia	Indonesia	5–0	Denmark
1990 details	Tokyo, Japan	China	3–2	Malaysia	Denmark	and	Indonesia
1992 details	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Malaysia	3–2	Indonesia	China	and	Korea
1994	Jakarta, Indonesia	Indonesia	3–0	Malaysia	Korea	and	China
1996	Hong Kong	Indonesia	5–0	Denmark	China	and	Korea
1998	Hong Kong, China SAR	Indonesia	3–2	Malaysia	Denmark	and	China
2000	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Indonesia	3–0	China	Korea	and	Denmark
2002 details	Guangzhou, China	Indonesia	3–2	Malaysia	Denmark	and	China
2004 details	Jakarta, Indonesia	China	3–1	Denmark	Korea	and	Indonesia
2006 details	Sendai and Tokyo, Japan	China	3–0	Denmark	Indonesia	and	Malaysia
2008 details	Jakarta, Indonesia

[edit] Successful national teams

So far, only three countries had won the event with Indonesia is the most successful team with 13 title followed by China and Malaysia. Surprisingly, Thomas Cup was only stayed in Continental of Asia even Denmark had reached the final eight times, but unable to win it.

Team	Champions	Runners-up
Indonesia	13 (1958, 1961, 1964, 1970, 1973, 1976, 1979, 1984, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002)	4 (1967, 1982, 1986, 1992)
China	6 (1982, 1986, 1988, 1990, 2004, 2006)	2 (1984, 2000)
Malaysia#	5 (1949, 1952, 1955, 1967, 1992*)	8 (1958, 1970, 1976, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002)
Denmark		8 (1949, 1955, 1964, 1973, 1979, 1996, 2004, 2006)
Thailand		1 (1961)
United States		1 (1952)

* = host

# = including Malaya

[edit] References and footnotes

^ Badminton: BWF spice things up. Retrieved December 23, 2006.
^ There is no match for the third place since 1990, the losing semi-finalists will automatically be declared as the third placed winner.
^ Malaya was the former name of Malaysia